Central Park Loops with Jens Voigt
Words: Lucia Deng
Photographs: Daghan Perker
Being a volunteer for Century Road Club Association does come with perks.
While planning our CRCA Year End Party a couple months ago, our friends at Trek asked if we’d like to host Jens Voigt during a visit to NYC. Um… YES PLEASE! While we tend to be spoiled by more than our fair share of celebrities sightings here in NYC, a rare opportunity to ride around one of the world’s most iconic parks, with one of the cycling world’s most iconic world tour riders, was not to be passed up.
So, the morning of our Year End Party, Jens Voigt met up with a few of CRCA’s VIPs — board members, sponsors & donors, and a few special volunteers, for a few loops of Central Park, followed by coffee. A quintessential New York City cycling experience.
Daghan Perker cheesin’ with Jens. All photos in this gallery were taken by Daghan.
As it turns out, Jens is super down to earth and soft-spoken. He loves to chat about bike racing of course, but really gushes when he’s telling you about the strength and wisdom of his partner, Stephanie, and their adventures raising their teenagers. He loves zoos because his kids love zoos. He also has a funny story about meeting Australians for the first time when he started racing — you’ll have to ask him to tell it, though.
After park laps, everyone went about their days and we met back up at the CRCA Year End Party, where we celebrated our big little bike racing community with our new friend, Jens.
I am a New Yorker who rides bikes of all kinds, sometimes runs, loves cats, and nerds out on transit justice issues. I am an advocate at heart and a member of the All Powerful Bicycle Lobby, though opinions here are my own.
Instagram: @luciadlite
Twitter: @luciadlite
E-mail: lucia@tobedetermined.cc
